Can Burna Boy Help On Sell Tennis-Fashion?
Also, Thierry Henry spotted wearing On clothing and sneakers.
Welcome back to SportsVerse, my twice-weekly newsletter that tells stories you can't find anywhere else about the intersection of sports, fashion, business, and culture.
Today’s newsletter is all about On. I’ll be analysing:
The surprise move of Nigerian Afrobeats star Burna Boy being hired as the brand’s highest-profile non-athlete ambassador for its tennis category.
An interesting sighting of Arsenal legend and French World Cup winner Thierry Henry wearing On's clothing and sneakers at a recent event.
President General
I was surprised when On announced that it was getting into business with Burna Boy earlier this month.
According to On, the long term partnership with Burna Boy is geared towards helping the brand with its mission to insert itself at the forefront of tennis culture.
“Burna Boy will collaborate with On to introduce products and experiences that champion self-expression and community. Tennis – a sport rich in heritage and fast-evolving – serves as the first canvas for this creative journey, building on Clubhouse Nights, On's global event series which blends tennis, music and art, in New York, Miami, and Paris.”
To launch the partnership, On has given Burna Boy the title of “Clubhouse President”.
At first glance, the Zurich-based sports footwear and apparel company and the Nigerian music star who helped turn the Afrobeats genre into a global phenomenon are worlds apart. It appears to be even less of an obvious match given that the initial focus on the partnership will be on tennis — a sport in which Burna Boy has expressed little to no interest, publicly at least.
It’s not as if Burna Boy has a major profile in sport either, save for the football academy, which he’s been building across Nigeria. Nor is he (in my eyes at least) particularly influential from a style perspective. He has featured in campaigns for brands including Burberry and G-Star Raw (remember them?) in recent years, but again, has no real reputation for being a fashion tastemaker as such.
It just seems like an odd pick for On, and one that certainly wouldn’t have been cheap.
But as you will know if you read SportsVerse regularly enough, On does things a little differently from its competitors. Here’s what the brand’s rationale would be for such a move, and why I think they will pull this off:
On (founded in 2010) is still a very new brand in the mainstream footwear market compared to its competitors. Working with globally recognised cultural figures helps the brand tap into their loyal fan groups and get on the radar of young consumers. Burna Boy gives On a ready-made audience, with over 18 million followers on Instagram alone.
On has a good track record for signing internationally recognised non-athlete talent as ambassadors and using their appeal to grow new categories. Both Zendaya and FKA Twigs were invaluable in growing awareness (and therefore sales) of the brand’s then-nascent training and lifestyle clothing categories.
Sportswear brands and music stars go well together (if you ignore how things ended for Adidas and Kanye West). Nike has fruitful collaborations with Drake and Travis Scott, while Adidas is building great products and marketing moments with Bad Bunny, and New Balance has a good thing going with Aminé and is in the early stages of a partnership with Rosalia. When positioned correctly, building product lines, sub-brands, events and marketing campaigns around beloved music stars can translate into valuable cultural cachet for sneaker and sportswear brands.
After getting its start in road and trail running, On has already successfully disrupted the tennis category by going against the grain, while also building out profitable divisions focused on general activewear and lifestyle products. I covered this in detail here and here. The brand will see no reason why it wouldn’t continue to do so in partnership with Burna Boy.
On is making serious money. Sales continue to boom as the brand reaches a new phase of maturity, even while other competitors are finding it harder and harder to cut through the noise in the hyper-competitive sportswear market. After another record breaking quarter (in terms of revenue generated), the company raised its guidance for full-year 2025, projecting year-on-year revenue growth of at least 31 percent, translating to estimated annual revenue of CHF 2.91 billion ($3.66 billion). The brand will feel now is the time to continue experimenting and pushing the boundaries of its reach while the wins (and the cash) continue to roll in. Signing globally recognised talent like Burna Boy does not come cheap, but On can certainly afford it right now.
Finally, Burna Boy will be used to promote tennis-inspired clothing, rather than performance tennis gear for actual use on court. This allows a healthy separation between him and On’s stable of highly marketable, young tennis talent from Ben Shelton to Iga Swiatek to Flavio Cobolli to Joao Fonseca.
Has On Gained Another Influential Former Athlete?
Like any real Arsenal fan, when Thierry Henry posts on Instagram (or does anything), I pay attention. The club legend posted a wholesome picture of himself with Arsene Wenger and several other Arsenal legends from the famous Invincibles season in 2003/04.
But what caught my eye was that Henry had chosen to wear a full outfit (sneakers included) designed by On for this very public appearance. It struck me as interesting for two reasons:
As recently as 2024, Henry had been promoting Puma products and featuring in the brand’s campaigns, part of a deal he had held with the brand since he signed from Reebok in 2011.
Naturally, On is a direct competitor of Puma, and any ambassador would be barred from publicly wearing a rival’s products, let alone posting photographic evidence to their four million followers.
This led me to the conclusion that Henry is now a free agent and is flirting with On, which would be fascinating for many reasons, given that On has zero presence in football to date.
Notwithstanding the growth of On in recent years, it’s rare to see someone wearing a full-on On outfit for a social event. That’s what makes me wonder what exactly, if anything, is going on between Henry and the brand right now. (There’s also a small possibility that Henry’s ambassador contract with Puma allows him to wear competitor brands, but I find that very hard to believe.)
Stay tuned for more info on this. I’m doing some digging.
That’s all I’ve got for today, friends. Thanks for stopping by.
See you soon,
DYM
Loved this!
Burna and On do seem like an odd pairing but I guess opposites attract. We’ll have to see how things are presented.